Dozens of animals are getting a second chance, thanks to this week’s 7Everyday Hero.

Floss Blackburn started the Denkai Animal Sanctuary in May 2004. The 640-acre ranch is located on the plains of Northeastern Colorado, near Grover. At any given time there are about 150 animals – everything from horses, llamas, goats, pigs, chickens, geese, dogs and cats.

"Their owners can't take care of them anymore, can't afford them anymore, they lose their house, they lost their farm,” said Bob Grube, Vice President at Denkai. Other animals are victims of abuse or neglect.

The sanctuary provides rescue, rehabilitation and safe haven for the animals. Their care requires donations and more than 200,000 volunteer hours.

"She's the one who gets up every day and makes sure the animals are fed and taken care of, and doctored," Grube said about Blackburn. She said it is all worth it: "just seeing that they're happy and well cared for and knowing where they had come from in the past, and the struggles they've had, and the abuses they've endured - knowing that they won't ever have that happen again.”

To give Blackburn her 7Everyday Hero plaque, we had to make up a story about giving a speech to animal lovers, just so she would peel herself away from the sanctuary.